North Carolina Association of Coordinators of Veterans Affairs

1. North Carolina Association of Coordinators of Veterans Affairs March 17, 2014

2. OVERVIEW • FY11-FY13 trainees/dollars paid/claims completed • Long Term Solution • FY13 claims processing highlights • Claims processing timeliness • Principles of Excellence • Centralized Complaint System • Comparison Tool • EDU realignment

3. FY11 – FY13 Trainees/Dollars Paid *As of March 13th, VA issued $39 billion in Post-9/11 GI Bill benefit payments to 1,162,591 individuals since program inception (August 2009).

4. Long Term Solution (LTS) Supplemental Automation Summary

5. FY13 Claims Processing Highlights • 4,513,286 total education claims processed (28% more than FY12) • 561,139 original claims (14% more than FY12) • 3,952,147 supplemental claims (31% more than FY12) • Payment processing accuracy rate at 98.7% • Exceeded the target of 98% • 58% reduction in pending claims volume in FY13 • Pending claims at the end of FY13 was 89,331 (FY12 was 213,590 claims) • Exceeded claims processing timeliness goals (average days to complete) • Original claims at 26.2 days compared to 30.5 in FY12 (14% improvement) • Supplemental claims at 9.7 days compared to 16.5 in FY12 (41% improvement)

6. FY13 Original Claims Processing Timeliness Goal 28 Days

7. FY13 Supplemental Claims Processing Timeliness Goal 14 Days

8. LTS – Recent Releases • Release 6.3.2 added the following functionality to LTS: • Duplicate Payments fix which addresses premature payments being released when a technical error occurs • Off Ramp Adjustments • Adjusted ‘Change of Address” off ramp to decrease number of cases incorrectly off ramped • Adjusted ‘Validation Error(s) Detected During Automated Work Product” off ramp to replace non-null values when a termination is received • Enabled ‘Change in VADIR Kicker Data has been detected’ off ramp • Additional defect and enhancement request to improve processing and letter generation • Auto-Pause dashboard – feature permits monitoring of automation to detect interruption of services • Release 6.4 is tentatively scheduled for March 15, 2014. The functionality in release 6.4 will include: • 81 months entitlement (PL 112-154) that authorizes VA to award up to 81 months of entitlement to individuals who use the Survivors’ and Dependent’s Educational Assistance program (chapter 35) • Adjustment to the VADIR TOE (Transfer Of Entitlement) Off Ramp Logic • Fixes to minor production defects

9. Principles of Excellence – Centralized Complaint System • VA and DoD created a complaint system for students to register complaints against educational institutions for fraudulent, deceptive, and misleading practices that will be tracked to the educational institution and responses provided to the complainant • Developed a system with DoD to accept complaints through a webform and the Education Service national call center • Launched on January 30, 2014 • 285 complaints received within the first 24 hours across agencies (VA, DoD, Dept. of Ed) • 1057 complaints received by VA as 3/14/14 • The top two complaints cited were: 8

10. Principles of Excellence – Comparison Tool • GI Bill Estimator/Comparison Tool; allows Veterans and family members to calculate estimated GI Bill benefits and research approved educational institutions. • Website -http://benefits.va.gov/gibill/comparison • Phase I – Launched February 4, 2014 • Value of their GI Bill benefit at a particular school (estimator) • School indicators (similar to college scorecard) • Veteran indicators (e.g., PoE, Yellow Ribbon, GI Bill beneficiaries) • Phase II • Calculates GI Bill Benefits • Tuition / Fees (pre-populated from ED’s database) • In-State vs. Out of State • School Indicators (PL Requirements) • Retention rate • Accreditation • Veteran Student Outcomes Measures • During School (Retention Rates, Persistence Rates, Course Completion Rates) • Graduation (Transfer Rates, Graduation Rates, Certificate Completion)

11. Veterans Retraining Assistance Program (VRAP) • Public Law 112-56, Section 211 • Sunset/Last Payment Date:  March 31, 2014 – statutorily imposed (sec. 211(k)) • Stopped accepting applications - October 1, 2013 • Received 143,139 VRAP applications • Legislation to extend VRAP: • H.R. 357, Section 15 • January 23, 2014: Legislation passed in the House to extend VRAP for two (2) months. • S. 1982 • Authorizes VA to pay retraining assistance for up to 100,000 more Veterans under VRAP for two additional years, until June 30, 2016. • One-Time Payments • To enable VRAP participants to complete training for their current enrollment period, VA will make a one-time payment • The one-time payments will cover training completed on or after April 1, 2014 through the end of the participant’s current enrollment, or June 30, 2014; whichever comes first

12. EDU Realignment • VBA realigned authority over the planning and management of education claims processing from the Office of Field Operations (OFO) to Education Service (EDU) on October 1, 2013 • The realignment only affects managerial staff at the four Regional Processing Offices (RPO). It does not impact the day-to-day work of RPO claims processing staff. • The realignment enhances VBA’s effectiveness by establishing a direct line of authority to EDU to enhance responsiveness between staff responsible for production and staff involved in policy, training, and regulations. • EDU established a new organizational structure to include an Operations Division • Key Operations Issues • National workload management strategy • Updated performance standards • Organization structure • Reporting requirements.

13. CONTACT US WEBSITE: www.benefits.va.gov/gibill FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/gibillEducation TELEPHONE: 1-888-GIBILL-1 (1-888-442-4551)